Who's giving Android's KitKat the finger?

New Android OS hasn't hit the web's sweet spot

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The carefully laid SEO plans of thousands of tech sites were shredded by Google and Nestle this week, as the Android creator and the chocolate company formed an unlikely alliance to change the name of the next version of Android from 'Key Lime Pie' to 'KitKat'.

When it was announced, amazement turned into... more amazement. Feelings then stayed as amazement. Everyone is still amazed. It's amazing. It's also completely ludicrous, as Google has now turned its world-beating mobile OS and covert advert delivery mechanism into one huge, very obvious ad for an admittedly quite nice chocolate bar.

Apparently no money changed hands, although both will be expecting some serious returns thanks to the vast amount of marketing cash that'll be blown on promoting the name change, the competitions, the future phone updates and more.

But did the internet give the shock Android name change one big chunky thumbs up, or did the commenters of the world hold up some slightly smaller fingers in response?

Class action

Opinion has not been mixed on the matter. Virtually everyone is aghast. Google may as well have announced that the 'S' iteration of Android will be known as Sarin. Even on AdWeek, a site devoted to the marketing world, commenters were baffled. Michael Barnathan echoed the thoughts of many, saying: "I kept refreshing the page expecting the date to change to April 1."

But it remains September. We've just, for the tenth time, refreshed it to make sure. And if you're planning on criticising the plan, make sure you keep the confectionery experts out there happy as well as the phone nerds, as Al Shaw on AdWeek complains that the site's report was an: "Awful bit of US centric reporting given that Kit-Kat is owned by Nestle and only produced under license in the US by Hershey. Do your research!" And you do yours as well, Al, as you have incorrectly hyphenated KitKat there.

Wave the finger

Over on Wired, which rather led its readers down a certain path by having "WTF?" in its own headline, reader The Gnome wasn't happy with the new corporate dream team either, saying: "Good to see Google innovating on things like... er... more stupid Android names and even more fragmentation. I guess the fat chocolate eating nerds that buy their phones will eat this up though."

A comment which was rightfully pulled up as being a bit dumb by ElyasM, who responded with: "As opposed to the gullible, elitist hipsters that buy iPhones? I'm not sure which stereotype is worse..."

Eh? to Z

It also didn't take more than 30 seconds after the announcement for the history of Nestle to be called into question, a company which, alongside its joyous range of sugary snacks and convenience foods, has battled complaints about darker ethical dilemmas faced by some of its practises.

But for fear of lawyers, they won't be repeated here. But there was on of the more baffling comment made by TechCrunch reader ElleryFamili who complained thusly: "I hate Google's decision to formally name their Android OS versions. How am I supposed to remember if eclair came before cupcake when dealing with QA issues."

You'd think a QA person would be a bit more on the ball than that, as user KunalBhat politely and gently pointed out that: "It's alphabetical... 'e' comes after 'c'."

Totally broken

Some people found it funny, though. In the minefield of YouTube comments, where no opinion is left unhad no matter how wrong or embarrassing, user Michael Atia revealed he enjoyed it and totally got the references in KitKat's satirical video, saying: "LOL... this is like the Apple keynote when the English guy (John Ive) is talking, similar music too!" to which Eric Santos responded with the classic "Thank you, Captain Obvious."